Teaching

Teaching is a hard job. I never really thought about that until tonight. When you are a teacher, it usually means you are well-versed in a subject, you know it well enough to have confidence to teach others. You are in charge of what others know. Also, you are in charge of the students. As a student they must obey the teacher in order to learn. But also, it is the teacher who creates the classroom enviornment. If the teacher is laid-back and relaxed students will either adopt that attitude or they see it as the teacher being a pushover and begin to take advantage. If a teacher is uptight, students will get that vibe. Almost a "monkey see, monkey do" kinda thing.

Although my classroom is different from most, I am a teacher of 6 rather than 26, and the setting is different, we sit on a bed and on cushions rather than in desks, I am still a teacher nonetheless. Thinking about how I am as a teacher is an interesting concept. I can do much better. I am an extreme pushover when it comes to my kids. I think it is because I care about what parents think and I don't want to be harsh because I am afraid that I cannot draw the line between in control and being psychotically strict.

Well, that's something I can most definately work on. Tonight didn't go so well, but I think that mostly stems from me. I am usually very ill-prepared. I teach from this book with chapters about prayer and worship and all that good stuff. I don't usually read it and I just go in and try to teach. In my last blog I mentioned that I want the kids to go away with learning about love, if anything at all. The way I'm teaching, I'm doing a terrible job.

So, I think I need to spend the week meditating on each lesson. Sure I'm not coming up with sermons, I have them right in front of me, but I'm still teaching and directing kids in the name of Christ. If I do a half-effort job then they will retain less, I believe.So, I'll try that for this week. Meditate on next week's lesson for the week and give it completely to God. Again, I have what I'm teaching in front of me so I really don't have to put much effort into it at all, but who knows, perhaps God will lay it on my heart that I should teach something else. :)

We shall see, we shall see....